CHAPTER 9
1And Job spoke out and he said:
2Of course, I knew it was so:
how can man be right before God?
3Should a person bring grievance against Him,
He will not answer one of a thousand.
4Wise in mind, staunch in strength,
who can argue with Him and come out whole?
5 He uproots mountains and they know not,
overturns them in His wrath.
6He makes earth shake in its setting,
and its pillars shudder.
7He bids the sun not to rise,
and the stars He seals up tight.
8He stretches the heavens alone
and tramples the crests of the sea.
9He makes the Bear and Orion,
the Pleiades and the South Wind’s chambers.
10He performs great things without limit
and wonders without number.
11Look, He passes over me and I do not see,
slips by me and I cannot grasp Him.
12Look, He seizes—who can resist Him?
Who can tell him, “What do You do?”
13God will not relent His fury.
Beneath Him Rahab’s minions stoop.
14And yet, as for me, I would answer Him,
would choose my words with Him.
15Though in the right, I can’t make my plea.
I would have to entreat my own judge.
16Should I call out and He answer me,
I would not trust Him to heed my voice.
17Who for a hair would crush me
and make my wounds many for naught.
18He does not allow me to catch my breath
as He sates me with bitterness.
19 If it’s strength—He is staunch,
and if it’s justice—who can arraign Him?
20Though in the right, my mouth will convict me,
I am blameless, yet He makes me crooked.
21I am blameless—I know not myself,
I loathe my life.
22It’s all the same, and so I thought:
the blameless and the wicked He destroys.
23If a scourge causes death in an instant,
He mocks the innocent’s plight.
24 The earth is given in the wicked man’s hand,
the face of its judges He veils.
If not He—then who else?
25And my days are swifter than a courier.
They have fled and have never seen good,
26slipped away like reed ships,
like an eagle swooping on prey.
27If I said, I would forget my lament.
I would leave my grim mood and be gladdened,
28I was in terror of all my suffering.
I knew You would not acquit me.
29I will be guilty.
Why should I toil in vain?
30Should I bathe in snow,
31You would yet plunge me into a pit,
and my robes would defile me.
32For He is not a man like me that I might answer Him,
that we might come together in court.
33Would there were an arbiter between us,
who could lay his hand on us both,
34who could take from me His rod,
and His terror would not confound me.
35 I would speak, and I will not fear Him,
for that is not the way I am.